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pet peeve of the day
Jan. 22nd, 2011 11:27 amOSTRACIZATION IS NOT A WORD! THE WORD IS OSTRACISM! STOP WRITING "OSTRACIZATION," IT MAKES YOU LOOK STUPID!
thank you for your time
thank you for your time
Writer's Block: Time for a reboot
Nov. 13th, 2010 05:05 am[Error: unknown template qotd]I think "have a nice day" is fine. Some people take offense, like "why are you ordering me to have a particular type of day? I'll have a bad day if I want to!" but that's silly, it obviously means "I hope you have a nice day."
I would replace the insincere "how are you"s with "hello." It's always off-putting when someone says "how are you?" and then walks off before I have a chance to answer. And it's a waste of time - fast food drive-thru clerks often have to say "how are you?" and I feel like it's rude to ignore it so I have to say "fine thanks, how are you?" and then they have to answer and I could have finished placing my order by then if they'd just said "welcome to ___ may I take your order?" People can still ask how you're doing when they genuinely care and want to hear the answer. But I could do without all this fake, perfunctory courtesy from strangers.
I would replace the insincere "how are you"s with "hello." It's always off-putting when someone says "how are you?" and then walks off before I have a chance to answer. And it's a waste of time - fast food drive-thru clerks often have to say "how are you?" and I feel like it's rude to ignore it so I have to say "fine thanks, how are you?" and then they have to answer and I could have finished placing my order by then if they'd just said "welcome to ___ may I take your order?" People can still ask how you're doing when they genuinely care and want to hear the answer. But I could do without all this fake, perfunctory courtesy from strangers.
writing pet peeve of the day!
Oct. 19th, 2010 08:49 pmHere's a phrase I don't like: "[blank] is just that: [blank]." It's a tautology and it usually comes off as condescending and insulting to the reader. I wish people would stop using it.
Writer's Block: Are you incentivized?
Apr. 26th, 2010 09:32 am[Error: unknown template qotd]HAAAhaha! Yes. There was a Shakesville post about this recently. I'm omitting words that are commonly misused/misspelled because 1. that's not really what the question was about and 2. we'd be here all day.
Actually I can only think of these two off the top of my head:
1) "it is what it is" - hate it because it's a meaningless tautology
2) "go ahead and" - it's redundant and it makes the speaker sound like they think the listener needs their permission
I also hate how management-types use hyperbolic metaphors waaaaay too much. "putting out fires" "fall on [one's] sword" etc. Like they have to make everything sound dramatic and important.
I have to confess that I have occasionally used both "in the loop" and "on the same page" although they make me cringe a little. It's hard when you're communicating with people who talk like that to avoid picking up their phrases.
Actually I can only think of these two off the top of my head:
1) "it is what it is" - hate it because it's a meaningless tautology
2) "go ahead and" - it's redundant and it makes the speaker sound like they think the listener needs their permission
I also hate how management-types use hyperbolic metaphors waaaaay too much. "putting out fires" "fall on [one's] sword" etc. Like they have to make everything sound dramatic and important.
I have to confess that I have occasionally used both "in the loop" and "on the same page" although they make me cringe a little. It's hard when you're communicating with people who talk like that to avoid picking up their phrases.
I ALSO HAVE THIS PROBLEM! IT BOTHERS ME!
Feb. 9th, 2009 01:58 pmhttp://xkcd.com/541/
...that is, figuring out the correct punctuation bothers me. I haven't been banned from any conferences. Yet.
...that is, figuring out the correct punctuation bothers me. I haven't been banned from any conferences. Yet.
I just found and corrected a huge, obvious typo that'd been on my site for many, many months. Why are they invisible to me when I'm doing my first several rounds of proof-reading and I only notice them months later? Why??
The same thing happened on an academic poster I did. Other people proof-read it too and they didn't notice it either. So it's not just me.
The same thing happened on an academic poster I did. Other people proof-read it too and they didn't notice it either. So it's not just me.
First it was "literally," used to mean the opposite of what literally actually means, then it was "infer" where "imply" would've been much clearer. I think I have witnessed the beginnings of the next trend in widespread abuse of English:
"Recant" means to take back a belief formally, as in "Well, it is so often the way, sir, too late one thinks of what one should have said. Sir Thomas More, for instance - burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism - must have been kicking himself, as the flames licked higher, that it never occurred to him to say, 'I recant my Catholicism.'"
"ReCOUNT," on the other hand, means to tell a story (or to count something again).
Saying "they recanted the story" makes you look like a MORONIC TOOL. I saw the writing of two such tools today alone.
I'm worried.
"Recant" means to take back a belief formally, as in "Well, it is so often the way, sir, too late one thinks of what one should have said. Sir Thomas More, for instance - burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism - must have been kicking himself, as the flames licked higher, that it never occurred to him to say, 'I recant my Catholicism.'"
"ReCOUNT," on the other hand, means to tell a story (or to count something again).
Saying "they recanted the story" makes you look like a MORONIC TOOL. I saw the writing of two such tools today alone.
I'm worried.
The following grammar rant is free of spoilers.
I was reading Something Awful. Lowtax is fairly conservative but he's funny so I'll forgive him. I will not forgive him, however, for using "infer" where he should have used "imply." I've seen that crop up a lot lately. It's my new pet peeve now that people have stopped abusing "literally" so much. I don't have a catchy song like Strong Bad* but this is a good general rule:
If you're doing the talking, you're implying.
If you're doing the listening/reading, you're inferring.
Here's an example:
"That's a very nice wand you have there, Sevvie," said Divinity Raven Celestia.
Divinity was implying something inappropriate.
Snape inferred from her name that she was a Mary Sue and turned her into a radish.
Misused words make Snapeypuff sad.
Yeah, dictionary.com includes the word "imply" in the 4th definition of "infer" but "imply" is not a synonym of "infer" and I don't like it when people use it as such.
* I can't remember which Strong Bad E-mail it was so I'll just have to give you the lyrics:
Oh! If you want it to be possessive, it's just "i-t-s"
but if it's supposed to be a contraction then it's "i-t-apostrophe-s!"
Scalawag!
I was reading Something Awful. Lowtax is fairly conservative but he's funny so I'll forgive him. I will not forgive him, however, for using "infer" where he should have used "imply." I've seen that crop up a lot lately. It's my new pet peeve now that people have stopped abusing "literally" so much. I don't have a catchy song like Strong Bad* but this is a good general rule:
If you're doing the talking, you're implying.
If you're doing the listening/reading, you're inferring.
Here's an example:
"That's a very nice wand you have there, Sevvie," said Divinity Raven Celestia.
Divinity was implying something inappropriate.
Snape inferred from her name that she was a Mary Sue and turned her into a radish.
Misused words make Snapeypuff sad.
Yeah, dictionary.com includes the word "imply" in the 4th definition of "infer" but "imply" is not a synonym of "infer" and I don't like it when people use it as such.
* I can't remember which Strong Bad E-mail it was so I'll just have to give you the lyrics:
Oh! If you want it to be possessive, it's just "i-t-s"
but if it's supposed to be a contraction then it's "i-t-apostrophe-s!"
Scalawag!
